Iolrachas éirime na nOileánach (Multiple intelligences among the islanders)

At yesterday's panel discussion on education on the islands, the point was made very compellingly by our colleagues from Oileán Chléire and other islands that the educational needs of island children can often be more diverse than the needs of mainland children and certainly than what is often provided for them by a conventional school setting. Reference was made to the wealth of learning resources which island children encounter naturally in the course of their day to day living. The beauty and richness of the environment in which island children live and which surrounds them so totally was referred to as was the extent to which they have to learn to cope with the ever-changing weather-patterns and tides which surround them.